Are We Free? A Wired Opinion Holiday Links Roundup

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired

On the Fourth of July, thousands of websites — Cheezburger, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, MoveOn and Reddit among them — joined an online protest against the NSA surveillance that’s come to light thanks to Edward Snowden.

While it seems obvious that such a protest would come on Independence Day, it reminds us of a fundamental question: Are we really independent and free? Or have we become colonized instead by another, more subtle set of forces — whether it’s big data or social networks or cellphones? Take a look at these opinions and decide…